By KRISTIN TICE STUDEMAN

June 25, 2013

“When we first started the Surf Lodge years ago, everyone asked why we would open a place in Montauk, which is an hour away from everything else in the Hamptons,” Jayma Cardoso said. “They all said no one is ever going to go there.”

The naysayers could not have been more wrong. The Surf Lodge returns this summer as popular as ever (some argue too popular), and much of the credit goes to Ms. Cardoso, a veteran of New York night life.

At a corner booth at Mercer Kitchen, Ms. Cardoso, 37, in a black T-shirt by the Row and a 3.1 Phillip Lim blazer, took bites of her kale salad and tuna spring rolls. In between, she answered e-mails and greeted a group of Italian friends who passed by.

In conversation, she is warm and easygoing, with a smile that rarely fades. But her playfulness stops when she talks about the Surf Lodge. She means business.

Along with two partners, Ms. Cardoso opened the former motel in 2008, when Montauk was still considered a mellow alternative to the hard-core partying that plagued the rest of the Hamptons.

That soon began to change, as young singles flocked to the 20-room hotel on Edgemere Street, with a large deck overlooking Fort Pond. But as the party grew, so did the complaints. Neighbors said the noise was unbearable, traffic backed up and cars were illegally parked. By 2012, the Surf Lodge had run up more than 900 zoning and other violations, many from a food truck it had parked in its lot, and was nearly forced to close.

In a move orchestrated by Ms. Cardoso, the Surf Lodge was sold to a company run by Michael Walrath, the investor, just before it reopened for the 2012 summer season. Ms. Cardoso remained an owner, the only one of the founders to do so. She quickly sought to rein in the party scene, with some degree of success.

“Look, we don’t want to make this Miami,” she said. “We aren’t blasting Avicii house music all day.”

Ms. Cardoso is determined to continue the transformation this summer, adding that she understands the community’s concern, in part because she comes from a tight-knit community herself.

Born and raised in Curitiba, Brazil, she and her mother relocated to Newark when she was 17, shortly after her father, an architect, died. After learning English, she moved to Manhattan and enrolled at Fordham.

To pay for college, she took a bartending job at a SoHo restaurant, Boom. “Forty-five minutes into it, the waiters figured out that I had never bartended in my life,” Ms. Cardoso said. “I said, ‘Bear with me guys, the drinks are very different here.’ I couldn’t even pour wine.” She was reassigned to the coat check.

Ms. Cardoso may not have always had the skills, but she certainly has the drive.

Her break came while she was a cocktail waitress at Lotus, a nightclub in the meatpacking district. There, she met Jamie Mulholland, the bartender, and they agreed to start their own venture. In 2005, after securing financing from several investors they met through the night-life circuit, they opened Cain, a safari-themed club in Chelsea. (It has since closed.)

That was followed a few years later by GoldBar, a gilded bar in NoLIta that seemed to embody the boom times with its pricey cocktails and strict door policy.

Though she is one of the few women to dominate the New York night-life and hospitality scene, Ms. Cardoso said she does not dwell on being a successful woman in a male-dominated industry. (“I can’t think of many other women besides Amy Sacco,” she said.) Rather, she sees it as an asset. “I think it’s definitely a tough business, but I think it’s good that I’m a girl because I can get away with more things,” she said. “I can cry at the hardware store for a better price.”

Back at Mercer Kitchen, as she paused to take another bite, she spotted the artist Max Snow, who is playing a big part in Ms. Cardoso’s plan to create a more mature Surf Lodge.

“What do you have in that Balenciaga bag?” she asked, standing to greet him. “Let me see.” He pulled out samples for a new Surf Lodge clothing collection that included white trunks. “Not to worry, they aren’t see-through,” Mr. Snow said. “I tested them in the water.” Mr. Snow will also curate art shows at the hotel this summer (as will Patti Smith, in August).

Ms. Cardoso has recruited a wider range of musical acts, from Courtney Love to Willie Nelson, and has revamped the menu with lighter fare. If she can’t win the community’s support through art and music, maybe she can with food.

“A lot of locals hadn’t actually been,” she said, “and then they come, have a lobster roll and realize that this place is pretty amazing.”